Hate Me If You Have To
by MorsDelecti
Summary: "I'm sorry I wasn't here when you needed me. Even when I came back. But I'm here now. Don't shut me out. Hate me if you have to, just don't take it out on everyone else..." Post-Seven Wonders Foxxay. Rated for language.


**A/N Well, someone kindly provided me with the pairing and the first line and it all sort of developed from there. Seeing as this received such a good response from my tumblr account - I think this is my most read piece there - I figured I would post it here also.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of AHS, Coven or otherwise, or this would have actually happened.**

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><p>"I fucking hate you right now Misty, don't even speak to me." Cordelia's heated voice lashed out over her shoulder as she stormed into her room. The swamp witch did not relent her pursuit however and followed the older blonde. The door slammed backwards in a bid to shut Misty out but again Misty pushed back and forced her way through the doorway with her shoulder against the Supreme's telekinetic barricade.<p>

"Delia, I don't even understand what it is that I did!" Misty exclaimed with confusion. Word spread like wildfire that morning that the headmistress had been in a foul mood, including rumour of a minor incident in the downstairs lobby when several students had simply been in the wrong place, at the wrong time and on the receiving end of a somewhat furious Supreme. When Misty cottoned on to the grapevine of circulating rumours, she had cancelled her scheduled herbology classes and headed straight for the source. As much as she thought it may have helped, Misty's presence only seemed to incense the older witch to an even greater degree and the Cajun could make head nor tail of why just being in the same room as her made Cordelia so angry.

"Don't lie to me." Cordelia all but growled from where she stood at her desk. From where she stood a few feet away, Misty could see her arms as they trembled, her hands placed firmly atop the hardwood of the desk as though to keep herself steady.

"Ya gotta calm down, ya scaring the students." An appeal to her love of teaching ought to have worked, and probably would have in most other moods, but apparently it didn't. "Is that what you want? Ta scare them like your mother did?" Misty asked. It was a none-too-gentle jab at an all-too-sensitive topic, but if it got through to the woman, she would take her chances. The students were scared, and that was everything Cordelia had not wanted.

"Don't you dare bring her into this." The glare the swamp witch received in response, even made Misty flinch. Those eyes, normally so warm, looked so dark. Where had the light gone? So very dark. So very much like Fiona.

"Why not?" There was no tip-toeing around the topic after that. Misty couldn't turn back. Whatever it was that was bothering Cordelia, she was going to find out. Cordelia was supposed to be her Delia, not her mother. "Cuz right now all I'm seein' is the her that's in you. And I don't like it."

"I am not my mother." Cordelia spat. Several of the items on the desk shot to the floor, one piece of paper of two burning as it drifted downwards to cinders, and if Misty hadn't been mistaken she would have said even the bed frame shook a little. One of the fountain pens on the desk had spiralled almost in her direction and landed by her bare feet, embedded in the floor by the tip. A scare tactic? Well that wasn't about to make her let up or leave when Cordelia was hurting.

"Sure." Misty said blithely with a shrug and stepped closer.

"_I am not my mother!_" This time, it was a scream. The power was palpable in the air as Misty was thrown back across the room by Cordelia's telekinesis and her back hit the wall that drew the air from her lungs. She hadn't expected Cordelia to use her powers against her. But she wouldn't give up so easily. She ran back towards the older woman at full pelt and for a split second Cordelia's eyes widened in surprise. Just as Misty almost anticipated, Cordelia tried to curtail the almost feral approach but Misty grabbed her arm just before and the two of them were sent barrelling over one another with the collision of physical momentum and telekinetic force. Misty's side smacked into the wall first and Cordelia fell atop her a second afterwards. Before the older witch could escape however, Misty rolled over, gripped Cordelia's arms as they failed to push the Cajun off and pressed their bodies to the wall. The swamp witch's physical strength was in her favour in comparison to Cordelia who may have had magic on her side but not so much if she was too stunned and subdued to use it. At least momentarily. Instigated by Cordelia's mood, Misty's own anger had risen just as high.

"What have I done?" She asked, almost begging for an answer as the other blonde's heavy breathing blew across her neck. "_What_ the _fuck_ did I _do_ to make you h_ate me so much?_" With each emphasised word, Misty slammed Cordelia's hands, still gripped so tightly in her own, against the wall. With each bang, Cordelia flinched a little more. "Just tell me, what did I do!?" Misty all but yelled as she looked into those dark orbs that grew wet as Cordelia gazed back.

"_You left me!_" The scream was hoarse, as though she had been at it for months and her voice had finally given way. Misty blinked as the words settled upon her.

"Wh…What…?" She was unsure what to say, unsure how to move and could only stare. Her hands loosened around Cordelia's, dropped a little, but she did not step back. Cordelia's dark eyes blurred with tears and she struggled not to let them fall.

"Everyone left me! I had no-one to turn to. I lost _everything_ for this." Her voice cracked. With her arms freed from Misty's grasp she pushed at the younger witch's shoulders, but the effort held less than half her heart. "You were supposed to be different. You were supposed to come back. To come back to me." There was no power as Cordelia punched her pathetically and Misty barely felt it as she still stood in shock.

"Delia…_I did._" Misty whispered, drew a hand through the older woman's hair. "I did come back. I'm here. With you. I'm right here." Without warning Cordelia's head dropped forward and burrowed into the crook of Misty's neck, breathing in deeply as though to prove she was right. Her hands wrapped around the swamp witch's shoulders, clutched and clawed at the shirt on her back.

"Seven months. Seven months I waited and grieved and I…" Cordelia murmured meekly. A wet warmth had begun to dampen Misty's shoulder. _The date._ The seven wonders had been a year ago. A year ago since Misty had failed. And even after those seven months of hell, once Misty had returned, she had needed time to adjust where the Supreme had none. With the authority and the students and her façade of fine to the rest of the world all while dealing with the loss and return of her love… She had kept herself so wound up for so long, it was no wonder in itself that the Supreme had been so close to nuclear fallout or falling apart… Cordelia begun to cry.

"Hey, hey, hey…" Misty ran her hand through Cordelia's hair again as she soothed the Supreme witch. For one so strong, in that moment she was so very vulnerable. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I tried. I really tried. I fought so fucking hard. Please don't let it all go. I'm sorry I wasn't here when you needed me. Even when I came back. But I'm here now. Don't shut me out. Hate me if you have to, just don't take it out on everyone else, on yourself." She whispered again. Cordelia did not look at her though, only gave a sigh that raised the hair on Misty's neck.

"Maybe you're right…maybe I am becoming like her…Lonely, bitter, hateful…" There was such resentment in her tone, Misty nearly flinched again. She had gotten this far, she didn't want a repeat performance of what it took to get there again.

"Ey, ey, no." Misty berated with a shake of her head and lifted Cordelia's gaze until she looked at her. "As much as you might be like her or not…" She placed a gentle hand upon the Supreme's cheek and Cordelia leaned into the warmth. "She ain't more than half who you've become. You're stronger than she was." The swamp witch tapped the side of Cordelia's temple gently. "This thing in here," and dropped the same hand to touch her heart. "An' this lil' thing in here especially, is stronger than hers ever was…'cuz you're still here…with your council, with your students. And with me. So hit me all you want, with your attitude, or your magic or those fists of yours. There ain't a single fucking thing you can do to scare me away." Before Cordelia could respond, the swamp witch's lips were upon her own and it was only when her eyes opened again that she realised she had closed them when the warmth had hit her stomach. The hot anger had cooled, dissolved and replaced with another warmth. One that she remembered well. One that she loved. Blood rushed back into her aching limbs and her heart hammered away with a familiar longing. She couldn't stay so angry at the eyes that looked back at her. She just couldn't. "Hate me if you have to. I'll keep coming back, _for you,_ Delia." Misty said quietly, and they both knew it was true, if either of them and their power had anything to do with it. She had fought through hell and returned. Cordelia couldn't ask for more than that as the swamp witch kissed her again. "_I'll always come back._"


End file.
